Currently In February

Kathleen, my friend, former roommate, and faithful-ally-against-melancholy-and-despair does these “Currently In [Insert Month Here]” things that I always enjoy reading.  And since she is Currently my blogging hero, I decided to adopt the practice.  BECAUSE I CAN.  Enjoy!

Current book(s): I’m almost finished with Northanger Abbey, Austen’s posthumously published quasi-Gothic novel.  I’ve enjoyed it very much, and it makes me want to visit Bath.  I’m also slowly making my way through Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and have about 40 pages to go.  Anne Lamott said that the book changed her life.  So far I’m a fan, but I don’t know if it’s having quite the desired effect on me.  Next up is Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s On Death and Dying, which is one of those books that I can’t believe never got assigned to me in seminary.  So, I’m self-assigning it.  Ministers are, after all, like mediators of life and death.

Current Playlist: Peter and I have been listening to Derek Webb’s newest album, Stockholm Syndrome, quite a bit.  We’ve benefited from our access to the UK program Spotify, which allows us to listen to music for free.  So, we’ve also been dabbling in Sigur Ros, She & Him, and Beirut.  We like ambient music.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Traveling.  It’s shame-inducing in that I am unemployed and feel as though I shouldn’t be spending a dime (or, rather, a pence) unless I’ve earned it.  And yet, I can’t help myself but try to see this part of the world as much as possible before we leave it for (the foreseeable) good.  This Saturday, I’m going to Spain: Madrid, Toledo, and Barcelona.  Tapas, paella, sangria, and El Greco– here I come.

Current Drink: Here’s a shocker: DECAF coffee.  I know, I know, it’s not real coffee.  But the way Peter makes it, you’d never know the difference.  Freshly roasted beans bought from our local roaster, freshly ground beans in our manual grinder, magical Scottish water, and a French press.  It’s impossible NOT to be good.  (We’ve decided to try to wean ourselves off caffeine in preparation for future life events… I’ll leave it at that).  Other than that, we’ve found a whisky we like: Bruadar (Gaelic for ‘Dream’).  Also, we’re currently working through a Casillero del Diablo cabernet sauvignon.

Current Food: Green&Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate (85% cocoa).  Also, I finally got Peter to try some smoked salmon on his morning bagel with cream cheese.  I don’t know if he was as big a fan as I am, but it was a victory nonetheless.  Other than that, we’ve been eating lots of fruit and vegetables.

Current Favorite Show: House.  Kathleen, I’m sorry for not watching it with you back when I had the chance.  Because, for one thing, I’m madly in love with Hugh Laurie now.  And also, WHAT A GREAT SHOW!  Just as a piece of trivia-you-already-probably-knew, the birds-eye shots over the “Princeton Plainsboro” hospital are not the Princeton hospital at all.  Instead, it is a shot over the Frist Student Center on the Princeton University campus.  But!  The building to its left (with the rounded walls) is a health clinic– in fact, it’s the McCosh Student Health Center where I worked for my three years of seminary.  Ah, McCosh.  I miss even you.

Current Wishlist: Pride and dignity.  Or, you know, I’d settle for employment.  I also wish that I had more direction in life and less confusion.  I’m too old for this…

But if you mean, like, stuff?  In that case, I’d like a new pair of jeans that fit me properly (hard to come by) and a new pair of boots.  I can do without both, though.  So, whatevs.

Current Needs: Oops.  This is where I shoulda put that other stuff.  Um, see first paragraph of “Current Wishlist.”

Current Triumphs: I submitted some writing to a publication.  It was soundly rejected, but it was good for me to do nonetheless.  Also, most of our laundry is done.  And, I’ve convinced my mother to come over for a visit during her spring break.  So, yippee!

Current Bane(s) of My Existence: Not knowing what is happening next for theklines.  Not knowing how to plan or what to think.  Also, while the weather is not nearly as miserable as it could be, I’ve never resented the darkness as much as I do here in Edinburgh.

Current Celebrity Crush: As aforementioned, I’ve fallen for Hugh Laurie.  As a bonus, I think that Peter will probably look something like him as he ages.  Observe:

See?

Current Indulgence: I am going to get a 30-minute aroma Zen massage tomorrow.  Be envious.  And then consider Peter, who is going in for a one hour and forty-five minute fully body treatment called a “Pre-Flight Delight” before his trip to Nashville this weekend.  It includes a salt/sugar scrub, intensive leg and feet therapy, and a back/neck/shoulder massage.  Holler.

Current Blessing(s): I am extraordinarily blessed by the people in my life.  Living day in and day out with very limited human interaction has taught me to appreciate these relationships in new ways.  So, thank you for your existence, people-in-my-life.  More specifically, the following things have blessed my life tremendously lately: hot showers, a new mattress, a footwarmer we bought from a old folks’ place called “The Whistling Tortoise” (you can’t make this stuff up!), and the ease of short hair.

Current Outfit: I want to lie and describe something awesome and Euro-fabulous.  In truth, I’m wearing blue striped pajama pants and a gray, hooded TCU sweatshirt.  And yes, it’s 6:15 p.m.  And no, I’m not even wearing a bra.

Current Excitement: My massage tomorrow.  My trip to Spain with Alisa.  I lovelovelove to have the ground beneath me on the move.  I love to travel.

Current Mood: Kathleen said “Apart from the random pangs of sadness I get due to situations beyond my control, I am feeling very, very content.”  I love that answer.  I will adapt it a bit and say that, apart from the random pangs of sadness I get due to situations beyond my control, I am feeling very, very fine.

Current Link: sporcle.com WARNING: it’s highly addictive.

Happy February!

Ten on Tuesday

Courtesy of Roots and Rings.

1. What is your favorite travel destination spot?

Hm.  Well, I discussed my views regarding the difference between vacationing and traveling last week.  So, using that same metric, I would say that my favorite place I’ve ever traveled to is the Cinque Terre in Italy.  This place is so breathtakingly beautiful and serene that you kind of wonder how long it will be so.  Taking a full day to hike through the five towns (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare) is an absolute must-do in life.  It will restore any loss of faith, hope, or love that you have ever suffered.

Also, I benefited from taking this trek with my BFF Rachel, whose presence in my life is like a soothing balm.  So, that helps.

2. Cats vs. Dogs.
When I was younger, I used to want a kitten so badly.  I thought that they were the sweetest, cutest animals on earth, and I wanted one to love and play with.

Cut to one day in junior high when my sister and I were taking a walk around our neighborhood with my mother.  A little cat trotted over to us, and Nicole and I bent down to pet her.  Then, out of nowhere, the cat hisses, bares its claws, and jumps onto Nicole’s face, burrowing into her skin.  Nicole got free and no permanent physical damage was done.  But, boy did that incident leave some scars.

Now, I’m madly in love with dogs.  It’s a problem, really, because I can barely imagine myself taking care of a child, but I want to adopt every dog I see.  My heart physically aches when I think about Bono, our beloved beagle, who is living with my parents for the time being (and happily so, I might add).

Here’s to you, bud.

3. Do you believe in fate?
I don’t understand the question.

I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason.  I don’t believe that certain things are inevitable.  I don’t believe that there are mysterious powers in the universe, manipulating every word and action so that particular things occur.

I don’t believe in the idea that some things are “meant to be.”

So, I guess the answer is: nope.

4. Do you believe in karma?

As in “whatever goes around, comes around”: no.

But, in the interest of interreligious dialogue, I do think the Christian tradition has something to learn from our Hindu sisters and brothers who look uniquely to the past to explain and process the present.  In Hinduism, karma is generally thought to determine one’s standing in a society (i.e. the caste system), but it is not limited to humanity alone– all living things are the result of this mysterious cycle of rebirth and continuity.  And the repercussions of karma are not always experienced during one lifetime.  Hence, a correlation with the western notion of history “repeating itself.”

Do I “believe” in this idea?  Well, no.  I’m not Hindu.  But I do believe there are more nuances and correlatives to our worldviews than we often think.

5. Everyone has a unique laugh. Do you like yours?
Ha.  I guess I hadn’t really thought about this.  Um, sure.  I like to laugh, so I guess the sound of my laugh doesn’t bother me much.

The person I know with the greatest sounding laugh is Lauren Petrick, who will probably never read this post.  Oh well– shoutout!

6. Is love really all you need?
Sure.

That Lennon was a prophet.

Also, this made my day.  And proves the point.

7. What’s your take on the whole 2012 scare?
Is it seriously a scare?

I remember when people were convinced that the turn of the millennium was going to cause riots, mass blackouts, disease, death, and dysentery (well, not sure about the last one, but it sounded good).  I was all up for it.  Whatta letdown.

8. If you won a million dollars and had to give it all away, who would you give it to? (Family and friends not included.)
I would find a few young people who couldn’t afford to pay for college, and I would put them through school.  I would find a few families who couldn’t afford to pay for major medical procedures someone needed, and I would pay for them.  I would pay for a young couple’s wedding.  And I would give the rest to Princeton Theological Seminary.

9. Do you believe in God/religion/the power of prayer?

I believe in God the Father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell.  On the third day, he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

I will spend the rest of my life believing this… while trying to believe this.

10. What New Year’s Resolution do you always make but never keep?
That this will be the year I will actually exercise.  I still need to get on that…

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy…

Rant over.  Now for some joy.

August 2008. Family Portrait.

August 2009. Friends. They don’t come better than this.

August 2009. Home.

September 2009. Student.

September 2009.  Wind in Edinburgh.

October 2009.  Wynd in St. Andrews.

November 2009. Happy Concrete.

December 2009. Scottish Snow.

January 2010. Short Hair.

January 2010. Time to Reflect.

Love, M.

All Things in Moderation. (A Rant).

Peter and I have made a habit out of doing “something fun” on Friday nights.  While we sometimes have a different notion of “something fun,” we can generally count on the fact that food is dearly beloved by both of us.  So, last night, we walked around the corner to a little Edinburgher restaurant called Buffalo Grill.  Eating out in Edinburgh can be an adventure on weekends, and we have learned– after many-a-late-night, wandering around town, looking for a place that will feed us– that reservations are our friends.  The only problem with this is that we usually decide to make a reservation at 6:30 or so on Friday night.   This obviously results in our getting the only available reservation, usually 9:30 or so.

So.  Last night. 9:30.  Buffalo Grill.  Table for two.

(Oddly enough, the above paragraph has nothing whatsoever to do with what I wanted to write.  I’m beginning to understand why someone once said to me: “Megan, English is my first language.  But listening to you tell a story?  It makes me dizzy.”)

What I wanted to write about was the conversation that we had regarding this article.  Go ahead and read it.  I’ll wait.

Now, welcome back.  I’m sorry I had to put you through that.

There are many directions we could go with this.  We could talk about how poorly written this article is, how ridiculous it is that this is considered “journalism,” how unbelievable it is that a national publication would publish this man’s conversations with 12 men as intellectually honest gospel, how blatantly disgusting this piece is, etc.  But for our purposes, what troubled me the most was (a) the fact that a friend from seminary posted this article on his Facebook page with the statement: “I’m not trying to put condemnation on the men they interview; I’m more fascinated at the social milieu of marriage culture that the article describes,” and (b) the comments section.  Let’s take these one at a time.

First of all, you better believe that I’m “trying to put condemnation on the men they interview.”  While I’m not entirely sure what it means to “put condemnation” on people, I sometimes wonder when to say when.  I learned a great deal from seminary, but one of the things that still baffles me is how, in our incessant quest to be right, we have lost all sense of a middle ground.  Instead, ideological wars are fought at extremes, and what seems to happen as a result is people fleeing to either end in order to feel justified in their convictions.  For this reason, I frequently felt out of place at seminary because I refused to take up permanent residence in either ideological camp.

Again and again, I encountered and conversed with seminarians– future leaders of the church and the academy– who somehow bought wholeheartedly into America’s political “divide.”  Conservative students were those who held to “traditional values,” such as heterosexual normativity.  These students used catchphrases like “national security” and “fiscal responsibility” whenever particular debates began to ensue.  Liberal students were those who utilized the terminology of “inclusivity” and made that their overarching value.  Yes, I’m simplifying and stereotyping.  Yes, it was probably a bit more nuanced than that.  But, reread the title of this post.  I’m ranting.

My guess is that my friend who posted the article and his comment would generally fall into the latter category.  Fine.  But, why go out of his way to say he’s “not trying to put condemnation” on these men and their confessions?  Is it the case that one must necessarily avoid drawing a line in the sand in order to avoid the perils and pitfalls of the former category?  If I, as a woman and a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, cannot say with certitude that it is wrong for men to cheat on their wives, to lie about their money, refuse to participate in the day-to-day parenting of their children, etc., then I think that our quest to not offend anyone has gone tragically awry.  After all, I am deeply offended.

I am not saying that the men in this article are any more undeserving of forgiveness and healing and compassion than anyone else.  But I am saying that this fact does not necessitate our utter abandonment of being able to say when something is wrong and harmful and hurtful.

(Side-rant: The “social milieu of marriage culture” in this article is not “marriage culture” at large.  Is there even such a thing as “marriage culture”?)

Secondly, peruse the comments.  Perhaps more disturbing to me than the preposterous article itself is the amount of women who have responded to this article, not with the indignation of being so devastatingly dehumanized in a national publication, but with their insistence that women think and behave the same way.  Women lie to their husbands, cheat on them, and have raging sex drives, too.  So, take that! men-folk.

What sort of response is this?  Why is it that women, in our own quest for full acceptance in society, determine that the best way to do this is to reduce ourselves to the baser stereotypes of men?  Want a good career?  Let’s do what the men do and forsake our family and all others in our pursuit!  Want to be sexually liberated?  Let’s do what the men do and try to sleep with as many people as possible!  To hell with the consequences; let’s just blame it on being drunk!

*sigh*

It’s lonely in the middle.

Prayer for Animals

A prayer by the fourth-century theologian, Basil:

O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship
with all living things, our brothers the animals
to whom thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us.

We remember with shame that in the past
we have exercised the high dominion of humankind with ruthless cruelty
so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song,
has been a groan of travail.

May we realize that they live not for us alone
but for themselves and for thee,
and that they love the sweetness of life.